Should Young People be Encouraged to Join Online Political Communities?

Young people becoming members of an online political party community is rare, because they prefer to read and share political news only for information. Apparently, there’s already much discussions about politics at home, in news media outlets and in townhalls where adults meet for community projects.
Not a few social behavior experts believe that it’s alright for the youth to just stick to online communities dedicated to their favorite games.

Although they tend to be exposed to inflammatory language and personal insults, many have learned to take such behaviors with a grain of salt, since they are all part of the gaming culture.

Online Political Communities Can Be Used for Different Motives

Political online communities however can have different motives in bringing like-minded people together. While an online community for a specific political party gives affiliated voters a dedicated space to use in weighing in the qualities of their party’s nominees, not all politically oriented communities function as tools for democratic processes.

Online political communities may be formed by far right or far left groups. Meetings and discussion focus on rallying members to participate in movements that promote their ideologies amidst a democratic form of society. The detriments of these types of political online communities is that some members acted on their own to launch violent actions. Others use their political online space in sending out secret messages as a means to gather large groups of people, as was the case in the January 06, 2021 Capitol Hill riot.

In some cases, online political communities are also used in spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories merely to influence or destroy the integrity of well-meaning government projects. As a result, they hinder the carrying out of public initiatives designed to work for the good all.

Online Political Communities Used by Some Governments to Stop Oppositionists

While young people throughout the globe have access to a broad range of political topics affecting their respective country, they can become targets of the so-called red tag movements. In some European and Asian countries, young people comprising college students, university or college professors, art activists and other members of civic organizations can be red tagged for their political opinions, especially if contradicting or criticizing government actions.

During the November 2020 presidential elections, the youths became active participants in campaigning for Joe Biden even without participation in online communities. The political development of the American youths depend mainly on the social media site they use, the beliefs and ideologies supported by celebrities they look up to as icons in their field and their grass roots environment among other things. Once in a while, video game players welcome political discussions in their online gaming community but only as part of an ongoing banter.

In the F95zone online gaming community, which is dedicated to players of adult games, political issues can also crop up as part of a topic for discussion. After all, adult games are different because they contain content that more or less are true-to-life. Adult game players believe it’s one way of keep their feet firmly planted on the ground when going about their daily routines

While politics may crop up as a topic, F95 Zone members who have contradicting views are free to state their opinion without fear of being ridiculed or shamed for the political party they support. As participating members of the F95 Zone Community, they observe the importance of communicating with respect and of giving value to general consensus.

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